by Sabine Siebold
MUNICH (Reuters) – Slow German government export licensing procedures are holding back billions of euros in Airbus Defense and Space deliveries, the division’s chief executive said on Sunday.
“Several countries are interested in the A400M (Airbus military transport aircraft, editor’s note). Unfortunately, we are having difficulty obtaining German export licenses in time,” Michael Schoellhorn told Reuters at the conference. Annual Safety Report in Munich.
“Our problem is that we have not yet received any contracts from the ‘Zeitenwende’ and that important exports are not approved. This puts us in a very unsatisfactory situation”, continued the leader.
Michael Schoellhorn refers to the special fund of 100 billion euros to modernize the army announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz last year as part of the “change of era” (“Zeitenwende”) theorized before the Bundestag shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine.
“We can’t stand the constant delays (in export procedures). Planning for security is essential,” said Michael Schoellhorn.
He said orders for various equipment, not just the A400M, were blocked at German government level, but declined to elaborate.
“In total, we are talking about several billion euros,” he said.
(Sabine Siebold; Laetitia Volga)
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